Octogenarian mountaineer Sherchan dies on Everest

Kathmandu / May 6:Nepal’s octogenarian mountaineer Min Bahadur Sherchan died on Everest Base Camp on Saturday, making it the second casualty this spring expedition.

Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at Tourism Ministry, said from the Base Camp that Sherchan passed away at 5:14 pm. Doctors suspected ‘heart attack’ behind his death.

Sherchan, 86, was making an attempt to scale Mt Everest to try to reclaim the title of the oldest man to climb the world’s tallest peak.

Sherchan had stepped atop the summit of Everest in May 2008 when he was 76 years and 340 days old to be recognised as the oldest person to climb the peak by Guinness World Records in November 2009, replacing previous record holder Japanese Yuichiro Miura.

Miura first climbed the peak in 2003 at the age of 70. He climbed Everest again in May 2008 when he was 75, but he did not set a record as he reached the summit a day after Sherchan achieved the feat at 76.

In 2013, Miura snatched the record back from Sherchan by stepping on the summit at the age of 80.